Today I passed by you in the parkand you had your arms crossedlike you had won some childhood fightwith yesterday.

And as I passed you bywe nodded, as if acknowledging someunspoken pact of hearts now mended.

Some unspoken acknowledgementof how on fire we use to be.How brightand fleeting.

We were passing stars at one point,with eyes clear with an in betweenof ache and healing.

Minds on fire for some future we couldn’t quite see yet,fluttering towards brilliant infinities,like moths through rain,and when I passed you in the parkthere we were,seated in our separate some day.

This morning I awoke,lazy eyed and unable to eat,as if my sole purpose in life lived between my hips.

But as our eyes glazed across each other,my stomach curled,and I knew I was not as old as I thought I was.

Still my body yearned for the version of us we both knew,still I hoped for some ancient gods to find me,still there were eyes drawn on my back to warn the world,still my breath stayed straying.

As I passed you bythere were spaces for airand moments to breath,but the rain drops trickled offlike it was in my nature to let them roll away.

Like it was meant to be,that we were once something so big.So brightAnd fleeting.

Every heart we felt beating betweenclouded walls and burning circles;witches and saints worshiping dysfunctional gods,all in between our six legs.

Today I passed you in the parkI came running back to the sisters in my stomachand the lungs on my sleeves whileflying through summer nights.California bornand bodies broken.

We were passing stars at one point,with eyes clear with an in betweenof ache and healing.

Author Bio:Valerie started writing seriously after her father gave her a copy of Fahrenheit 451. She figured it was as good a time as any to start fighting the patriarchy. She has since been published in Lone Cypress Review, Red Cedar Review, Pif Magazine and Scheherazade, among others. She most recently curated a poetry exhibit highlighting National Poetry Awareness Month at her university. Valerie lives in Monterey, California and enjoys drinking stale coffee, marathon viewing The West Wing, and writing…always writing.